Electrical connectors with locking mechanisms are useful to prevent unintended disconnection. One application involves a cable terminating at a removable connection to a mating connection on a chassis or printed circuit board in an electronic instrument. Typically, such connectors have a latch mechanism that normally has a very high or unlimited extraction force, but which has a handle that releases the mechanism to provide a low, limited extraction force. This prevents the connector from loosening or disconnecting unintentionally due to environmental vibrations or jostling during servicing of other portions of the instrument.
Often, such release handles operate by motion in the direction in which the connector is extracted from the mating connector portion, such that a user applies force to the release handle in a natural, intuitive direction.
In applications such as connection to printed circuit boards connectors in computers and other electronic instruments, printed circuit boards are often arranged in parallel arrays spaced apart by limited gaps to allow a compact instrument housing. With such limited "headroom" extending perpendicularly from each board, a connector that might naturally extract perpendicularly from the board would not have sufficient room to allow the use of a latching connector with a release handle extending in the extraction direction. Although the board might be removed from the instrument prior to extraction of the connector, an extraction handle would protrude substantially into the space occupied by an adjacent board. Thus, a designer must choose between the benefits of closely spaced circuit boards versus latching connectors with a perpendicular extraction direction.
The embodiments disclosed herein overcome these limitations by providing a latching electrical connector with a body connectable to a receptacle and having a latch mechanism that mechanically engages the receptacle to resist disconnection. A flexible electrical cable extends from the body, and a grip element is connected to the latch mechanism to unlatch the mechanism upon pulling. The grip element is flexibly connected to the latch mechanism so that it may be folded aside to provide a compact arrangement.